


Strong Pepper

by sarahgirl1998



Series: HTF sneezefics [35]
Category: Happy Tree Friends
Genre: Comedy, Gen, Humor, Sneezing, Spice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-03-01 12:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13294764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahgirl1998/pseuds/sarahgirl1998
Summary: Once again, Lumpy falls curse to the sneeze-causing spice that is pepper.Based on one of my drawings, and is also an experiment with more detail than my stories usually have.





	Strong Pepper

It was close to the end of the day, and Lumpy was preparing dinner for himself. Tonight, he had decided to make his favorite kind of soup.

Lumpy stood at the stove, with a pot filled with hot broth boiling over the internal fire. All of the main ingredients had been added to the meal, but he had to stir it for a few minutes before he could serve some to himself.

When it seemed like it was ready, Lumpy took a ladle and dipped it into the broth. He then pulled it out and blew on it gently, trying to blow away the steam. He then sucked some of the broth into his mouth and swallowed it. It tasted good and all, but it was a little flat. Then Lumpy remembered why it tasted like that; he had forgotten the pepper. He poured the remaining soup from the ladle back into the pot, and then put it aside for the moment.

Lumpy reached over and grabbed a pepper mill, which was brown in color and had a silver crank on the top. Holding it over the pot, he turned the crank around in a circle. As he did, he watched speck after speck of black pepper emerge from the bottom of the mill, descending into the water.

Within merely seconds of doing this, his nostrils started to flare and quiver. Lumpy let go of the crank and swiped his forefinger under his ticklish nostrils. If he didn’t count the aroma, his nose felt like it was being tickled by feathers and soft brushes. The pepper had just come out of the grinder, and it was already smelling like sneezes.

Lumpy sniffled, trying to keep the itchy, spicy tickle from getting any worse, but he only smelled more of the pepper. His nostrils shivered, as if they were feeling cold. Lumpy kept rubbing his nose, but it just kept quivering - mostly the end, where his nostrils were.

“Ugh...” Lumpy scratched his nose, trying to stop it from tickling, but it wasn’t working. “ This is some strong pepper...”

Lumpy placed the pepper grinder onto the stovetop, and momentarily turned off the stove. He didn’t want to burn his dinner while he was so distracted with his nose. With the most likely risk avoided, Lumpy continued to sniff, rubbing at his nose with his forefinger. In the process, his breath started to hitch.

“Aah...” Lumpy took one breath, accompanied by a short backward jerk of his neck. Then, almost immediately afterward, he raised his forefinger under his nose and pressed it under his nostrils. He didn’t want to sneeze now. But his nose didn’t want to listen to him. “Aaaah...”

Taking a sharp sniffle, Lumpy rubbed vigorously under his nose with his forefinger. But since he was only rubbing the outside of his nose, the insides of his nose continued to tickle. And once the itchy smell of the pepper had made it in, the resulting sensation would stay for several seconds or even minutes on end. Sometimes it would die out by itself, but almost every other time, Lumpy would have to sneeze it all out.

“Aaaah, aaaaaah...” Lumpy swiped his forefinger against his nostrils at a fast speed, trying to hold back the sneeze. But it was coming. “AaaaaaaaAAH...”

Hearing his inhales start to get louder, Lumpy slowly took his forefinger away from his nose. The urge to sneeze was nearing its climax, and he was too far in to stop it. Lumpy turned his body away from the pot, not wanting to risk sneezing into it, and tilted his neck back.

“AaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAH... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH--“

Lumpy’s nostrils widened to their largest size and his snout quivered constantly with his final inhale. He expected the sneeze to explode straight out of his body. But just when he thought it would, it didn’t. The sneezy tickle in his nose weakened significantly until it was no longer an urge to sneeze.

Lumpy tilted his neck back to his normal position as his nostrils flared slightly, still feeling a bit sneezy. Lumpy swiped his forefinger slowly but vigorously under his ticklish nostrils. He sighed in slight annoyance. Just as he had given in to the sneeze, it just ran off. But maybe there was a way he could make his sneeze come out...

Lumpy looked around the kitchen, looking for a feather or something soft to tickle his nose with. But all he saw was the pepper grinder, and its contents that had been playing games with Lumpy’s nose. He knew what he had to do. It would hurt his nose, but if it was going to help his sneeze come out, he didn’t have a choice.

Lumpy took the pepper mill, turned it over and held the bottom under his nostrils. Closing his eyes and bracing himself, he took a big, deep sniff. The smell of pepper filled both of his nostrils, tickling them and making them quiver. But as he was taking the sniff, a few very small grains of pepper got sucked into his nostrils.

Lumpy’s eyes shot open and his pupils shrunk dramatically. His entire nose froze for a moment, and then the end of his snout began to twitch. His nostrils began to flare up uncontrollably as an incredibly strong tickle surged through his sinuses. Putting the grinder back down, Lumpy turned away from the stove again and began to inhale. And right from the start, the buildup was loud as heck.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...!” Lumpy brought his forefinger up to his nostrils, not wanting the upcoming sneeze to get too powerful. But to his internal dismay, it wasn’t working as he thought it would. He quickly decided that it was for the best, however; this sneeze was going to be really loud and really powerful. Or at least, enough to bring that blasted tickle in his nose to an end.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-- CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

Lumpy shot his entire upper body forward as he exploded with an absolutely massive sneeze. A good amount of saliva came misting out of his mouth, and a good amount of clear music blasted out of his cringing nostrils. The sneeze was also extremely loud; it could be heard from any room in Lumpy’s house, as well as the front yard and the back yard. Lumpy was lucky he didn’t sneeze directly into his dinner, lest he ruin it.

Lumpy recovered from the sneeze, but now his nose was dripping with sticky mucus. Sniffling wetly and deeply, Lumpy gently ran his forefinger under his nostrils a few times, looking adorable as he did so. He sighed with relief as he rubbed his nose, since he had gotten that pesky tickle out of his nose with his sneeze.

“Phew. I’m glad that’s over...” Lumpy sounded a little groggy as he said that, due to his runny nose.

Lumpy pulled out a tissue from his pocket and held the tissue over his nostrils with both hands. A loud honk could be heard from the next room over as he blew his nose into the tissue. With his sinuses cleared, Lumpy wiped any excess mucus off his slightly sore nostrils with the tissue. Once he was finished, he balled up the tissue and threw it into the trash can.

Lumpy went over to the sink and turned one of the faucets on. He cleaned off his hands in the cool water, and then turned off the faucet. As the water flow quickly stopped, Lumpy took a towel and dried off his hands. He placed the towel back on the handle of the oven and turned the stove back on, making the water boil again.

After a few more minutes of stirring everything in the pot, Lumpy was finally convinced that his dinner was ready. He took a large bowl and poured some of the soup into it, trying to be as careful as he could. He then grabbed a clean spoon from his drawer of utensils, and took his bowl to the table.

Lumpy dipped his spoon into the soup, and then took it to his mouth and sucked it up. He swallowed it, and smiled. The soup tasted really good thanks to the pepper that he had put in it, so he continued to eat it.

After a few minutes, the bowl was empty, with only a small puddle of leftover broth on the bottom. Lumpy sat back in his chair, sighing in contentment. He brought his hand up to rub his full belly in a circular motion, accidentally tickling himself as he did so. He giggled, and then pulled his hand away from his belly.

“That was some good soup,” he said to himself.

Lumpy then saw that there was a very small amount of soup left in the bowl. He used his spoon to collect the rest of it, and then sucked it into his mouth. Suddenly, he felt a hot sensation on his tongue, making him pant. The broth still had a good amount of pepper in it, and he could sense it.

Suddenly, Lumpy sniffled without even knowing what he was doing. His nose was growing runny due to the spicy pepper. Lumpy raised his arm up to his nose and rubbed back and forth, sniffling as he did so. It helped, but Lumpy didn’t want his nose to start dripping again.

He reached his hand into one of his pockets and searched for some more tissues. He didn’t feel any in there, so he removed his hand and checked his other pocket. No tissues in there, either, but he did find some sort of cloth in there. He grabbed onto it and pulled it out of his pocket, then looked at it to see what it was. It was a white, cotton handkerchief that he always brought with him, but frequently forgot about.

Lumpy wiped his nose with the handkerchief, not wanting to blow as he hadn’t sneezed yet. That was basically an excuse, but Lumpy saw it as quite the opposite. On at least two different occasions, he blew his nose despite not having sneezed beforehand. And on one of those times, after he had blown his nose, he sneezed, but didn’t blow his nose. It was on that day that he thought, maybe he shouldn’t blow his nose unless he sneezed first.

Lumpy’s nose continued to feel runny, so he got up from the table and walked over to the stove. He picked up the pepper grinder and held the bottom close to his nose. He wanted to let out another sneeze so he could have an excuse to blow his nose. He shook the grinder up and down a couple of times, loosening ground pepper that settled onto his nose, as well as into his nostrils.

Lumpy’s nose twitched and burned, and his nostrils flared up to three times their normal size. He quickly put down the pepper grinder and covered his nostrils with his handkerchief, which he held over his snout with both hands. He tilted his neck back as he inhaled, his eyes watering as his eyelids fell halfway.

“Aaaaaaaaaaah... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh...” Lumpy gasped as his nose rumbled, and very small amounts of mucus dripped out of each nostril. He made no attempt to sniffle it back up, however. He just wanted to sneeze it all out. With a final jerk of his neck, and a final dramatic inhale, Lumpy braced himself for another loud and powerful sneeze.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

Lumpy sneezed loudly and forcefully into his handkerchief, causing the edges to flutter around as he kept it over his nose. Much of the mucus that had been threatening to lose out of Lumpy’s nose was instead expelled straight into the cloth.

Lumpy momentarily removed his handkerchief from his nose, and then swiped his forefinger gently under his nostrils. He then covered his nose with his handkerchief once again, but blew his nose into it, making a gurgling sound as he did so. His nose stopped running as soon as he started blowing. When he finished, Lumpy wiped his nose with his handkerchief, sniffling lightly.

“I have to say, that is some strong pepper,” Lumpy said to himself. “I really got to be more careful with it, or it’ll make me sneeze even bigger than I already do!”


End file.
